Writing/project tips for the week

Some tips for revising your project or for future projects:

• Be sure your essay or project has a sense of purpose
• Number your pages!
• Don't begin with a dictionary definition (unless you're really using it in a meaningful way, in which case do not "X dictionary defines Y word in Z way")
• Qualify generalizations (for more on this, see here)
• Unpack
• Beware of floating "this," "that," and "it"
• Use double quotation marks in every situation (unless you're quoting within a quote, the only situation where a quotation gets single quotation marks)
• Quote your sources! Important for both research sources and literary sources
• Don't forget the power of a brief quote incorporated into your own sentence
• Use the serial comma (unless you're writing in a journalistic context)
• Offer a thesis or a launching point in the first paragraph (or first couple paragraphs) of your essay